Portret van een man met snor 1879 - 1883

Johannes Hendrikus Kramer created this small photograph "Portret van een man met snor," translating to "Portrait of a man with a mustache," using a process that democratized image-making in the late 19th century. Photography's advent was revolutionary, shifting portraiture from the realm of the painted elite to a more accessible medium. The carte-de-visite, of which this is an example, was a calling card, a memento, an item to be collected and traded. Consider the material – a thin paper card, chemically treated to capture an image. Its reproducibility speaks volumes about the industrial age, where replication became key. Kramer's work sits at an interesting intersection: between the hand of the photographer carefully composing the shot, and the automated processes that fixed the image. The rise of photography studios meant that portraiture was no longer an artistic craft, but a product of labor, creating a new form of visual culture tied to commerce and the everyday.